When Marriott acquired Starwood, I thought this would be:

1. Good for Marriott Rewards members. It gives them a myriad of far nicer properties than they’ve had access to for using hteir points.

2. Potentially good for non-elite Starwood members. Marriott is more generous award points for in-hotel earn than Starwood is.

3. Potentially very bad for Starwood’s top elites. Starwood has long been far more generous with benefits (guaranteed late checkout, suite upgrades, breakfast even at resorts and across all brands) than Marriott.

Marriott Boca Raton

When I sat down with Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson last year he asked why I didn’t believe him that he wanted the best from both loyalty programs, that his goal with the expanded footprint Starwood provides was to offer the only hotel program customers would ever need.

I offered that one of the stated goals with the merger was scale that would give them leverage with suppliers and corporate customers. Marriott hadn’t needed to be generous given their size in the past, customers were loyal to Marriott because wherever they’d go they could earn their points.

Increased size would only increase their leverage with customers and their ubiquity. It took far more effort to be loyal to Starwood, so Starwood had to work hard to provide great treatment to customers who made that choice. And the average room rates were higher at Starwood’s properties that skewed upscale.

That’s why I’ve been surprised to see Marriott get ahead of the merger with customers by offering transfer of points and status match on the first day of the merger, and before the programs merged to see Marriott adding 4pm late checkout for Golds and Platinums, introducing their own experiential rewards like Starwood’s SPG Moments, and trialing an Ambassador program to give dedicated customer service representatives to their most frequent guests.

Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman

What Sorenson may have seen, but that I didn’t realize 14 months ago, is that they plan to keep all 30 brands across both chains even though the distinctions between brands don’t make much sense. This way they keep management fees from more hotels, they can have more hotels nearby each other if each carries a different flag.

And the loyalty program is what allows them to do it. Customers may not understand the brand, and even keep track of which brands are part of the program, but if they book direct on Marriott’s website they’ll present customers with their options. The loyalty program drives the customer to the website, and keeps them staying inside the chain. For that they need to offer their power customers a compelling reason to stick with them.

So it’s precisely because they’re growing larger, with more brands, that they need a more compelling loyalty program for their most frequent guests.

It makes sense, then, that Marriott’s next promotion will offer points for stays and will offer points for staying at additional brands. The idea is to use the loyalty program to incentivize and get customers used to staying across Marriott brands.

Marriott Seattle Airport Atrium

Per One Mile at a Time from May 27 through September 4 Marriott will offer:

1. 2000 bonus points for each paid stay beginning with your second paid stay during the promotion
   
2. 2000 bonus points for staying at each different Marriott Rewards brand during the promotion beginning with your second brand

Registration is expected to become available May 15.

If you move around from brand to brand with each stay that’s 4000 points worth $32 per stay after your second stay. If you don’t vary your brands though the promotion is modest at just 2000 points per stay, effectively double points on $200 spend after your second stay which is fine for cheap short stays and weak for longer or more expensive stays.

Since you can’t yet credit Starwood stays to Marriott Rewards this applies to Marriott stays only. The last promotion Starwood offered mirrored Marriott’s offer. Regardless I’d expect to see more promotions encouraging staying at different brands going forward.